Prophet - Your Go-To Blog for Politics, Entertainment, and Crime Tips

Tides, Burn's from the old SA Remnants? Makes sense, I guess - you'd be amazed how many techies started rocking the corona once the Alliance went all turian.

And you wouldn't believe how annoying it is for the salarian sappers to teach them how do to their jobs right.

Quite. Stick to the believable VS, like "SATAE killed the Scott Sniper to hide the Truth."

[Cross-posted to CrossNet Prime, DarkNet, Electronix, Undernet, Cerberus Daily News, and Erszbat Social]

Alright, people. Standard fare this week. No new articles yet, but we'll be covering Cybercrime, Entertainment, Electronics, and the usual Underworld and Politics articles.

ENTERTAINMENT

The Galactic Hacker-Dueling League is happy to report that they are finally back up and running after the Reaper War. Still based out of Omega, and all competitors are reportedly still coding at a happy and competitive pace. They're reporting they're currently on-track for their next tournament, which I'm hoping to be there for.

Yeah, this one's gonna be kind of dull today. Moving on.

POLITICS

Last night, reports of mercenary gunships making planetfall in addition to a number of unarmed transports belonging to numerous small-time PMCs began to circulate. No less than three mercenary companies, and a sizeable number of freelancers, have landed and are currently engaging Lok-cal County militia at the Lok-cal Spaceport and in scattered engagements all along the county line. There's also word of a 'decisive mechanized battle' outside the town of Lokrav currently underway between county militia and the mercenary company identified as the Dread Legion, a PMC led by a former Terminus warlord known as Karnos Marnax. Reports of Lok-cal Militia falling back in disarray are confirmed, although pockets of resistance are holding out, but they'll be crushed before too much longer unless Lok-cal successfully rallies its militia or brings in outside support.

Response from the Erszbat Council indicates a peacekeeping effort may finally be in the works, but nothing concrete has been brought into the public view. There's been talk that Ertl County's leadership is working up a response to the ongoing war. There's been a big mobilization of the militia here ever since the mercs made planetfall and there's talk of a possible incursion into Lok-cal County territory to help reinforce it against the incoming Karval County forces, but others suggest the Ertl response is merely a defense measure in the event of a Karval incursion. Thing are going downhill on all ends, fast.

I'll be keeping you up to date on the situation as it develops.

ELECTRONICS

OK, the electronics market is getting saturated with cheaper alternatives for modern terminals. In the wake of the war and subsequent economic problems, everyone's trying to penny-pinch and this extends to home terminals. The main problem is that a lot of these 'cheap alternative' terminals present an overall downgrade in performance compared to older terminals, while claiming to be just as good as the new top-of-the-line stuff. This is really prevalent in Terminus space, but that's normal. EVERYTHING is a downgrade in performance in Terminus space.

So, I'm going to restate what I said in regards to OTs. Stick with the older models, at least until the economy turns around. The market won't get better until the rest of the galactic economy improves, so your competitors aren't looking at upgrades either. You won't end up too far behind if you wait.

CYBERCRIME

Another tidbit from my Intro to Hacking from last year. Starting to run out of these. I might need to make something original and new for this section eventually. This one's more for a cybersecurity specialist - how to thwart a hacking attempt instead of pull one off.

When someone starts trying to hack into your system, send out a trace, and then wait before tracing them again. If they have any decent anti-tracer programs and enough proxies in place, your first attempt isn't going to do it, but don't just mash the 'trace' button as quickly as you can in the hopes of making it go faster. Time the trace attempts every few seconds, and set a VI to do it automatically if you can. If you get a different location every time you send out a trace, or every couple of times you send out a trace, then keep it up. Eventually, you should pin down the hacker's location. At this point, you hand it off to your local squad of friendly law-enforcement officers or a team of ruthless and bloodthirsty gunmen. Either way, the problem should be resolved shortly.

UNDERWORLD

Today, we're going to talk about the black market. This is gonna be part of a three-part series, so we'll just start off with how these things start up, and some basic background on them.

According to the usual definition, a black market is any sort of illegal financial exchange, but to hear it from law-enforcement bodies like C-Sec, all that's sold is illegal weaponry, narcotics and stolen goods. Black market goods actually vary drastically depending on local laws and who runs the market. Underworld syndicates have survived for centuries by running the basic staples of illegal markets: Recreational drugs, stolen high-price goods, people (prostitutes AND slaves), and guns. Black markets don't end with organized crime, though, since it's common to find stockbrokers dealing in financial taboos such as insider trading schemes, or info-brokers selling classified information. It's just as common to see a tech-peddler selling illegal omnitool modifications as it is to see an arms-dealer showing off rifles and rocket launchers to terrorists like Sovereign Nation or the Barhak Brigade.

These black markets exist at every level of society. If you know the right people, you can come across a market in virtually every city on every planet in the galaxy, and a lot of the major stations too, such as the Citadel. Like all markets, black markets are driven by the economic principle of supply and demand, but there's a lot more to it. Items that are stolen or counterfeit are deliberately intended to undercut the retail value of legit goods, so expect street value to be lower than usual. Second-hand gear is pretty much the same. The idea is to move the goods quickly, and there are no guarantees on quality, so be sure to haggle. There's also a legality question involved.

Sure, it's the black market. It's illegal, but HOW illegal? There are lots of laws on the record that law-enforcement organizations rarely enforce, so dealers trading in certain goods have little to fear except for the confiscation of their goods and a small fine (depending on the area). As such, the goods that are less risky to move around will be less expensive to purchase. For example, getting something that the cops actively try to suppress, such as illegal guns, is a fairly big risk. The dealers WILL pass on their operational costs to the customer. Same goes for high-end hacking tech, military-grade body armor, etc. Something that the cops rarely try to suppress, such as pirated movies, isn't that hard. I could run down the street and buy a collection of the newest movies in decent quality before they're on the extranet with only about twenty credits. I couldn't feasibly do that with a rocket launcher and some ammo. If an item is especially hard to get, you might need to take out a few loans and lie about wanting to open a bar.

Next time in Underworld, we'll be talking about the political landscape of the underworld, niche markets, and the complicity of the system in the distribution of illegal goods.

That's all for this entry of Prophet, ladies and gentlemen.



On the subject of the contest from last week, you guys need to send in more suggestions for new articles. I haven't gotten any more than a dozen. You guys send in your suggestions for a new type of article here on Prophet, and I'll pick the one I like the most. Then I add that to the weekly entries alongside Entertainment, Cybercrime, and Electronics.

Stay safe out there!

Excellent article as usual Mekan, but it breaks my lungs to see our beloved Erszbat becoming a merc playground like that...

you got plans for safety?

Keeping the shotgun and that armor you gave me handy. It's staying close, and I've got the doors locked at all times. It won't do much good against machine guns and rocket launchers if Karval rolls into my neighborhood, but at that point, all bets are off.

So, plans for safety beyond 'stay put and try not to die?' No.

Sorry, readers, but this week, I'm afraid there won't be any article. Extranet connections have gone to shit the last few days due to a few mercenary gunships commencing a strafing run on my Extranet Service Provider here in Ertl County. I only just managed to get myself a decent connection via another service provider here. I kind of had to break into the building at night and hack into the wireless network to get this out. Karval County forces have crossed the county lines and are engaging Ertl County Militia in scattered battles. As such, I'm busy making preparations to leave or hide and won't be writing any articles - possibly for some time.

Have fun and stay safe, all of you.

Good luck Mekan ::/

[Cross-posted to CrossNet Prime, DarkNet, Electronix, Undernet, Cerberus Daily News, and Erszbat Social]

Hey, ladies and gentlemen! Prisoner 241-B, here! Been a while since my last post, so I'm hoping to make sure this one's a good one to make up for lost time.


ENTERTAINMENT

Karval County government officials are pleased to report that the County capital of Laraz is hosting a Haraba tournament next week. Local extranet channels will permit for pay-per-view. The broadcast is scheduled to begin at noon, at the top of the hour, assuming local conditions are suitable and there are no unexpected sabotage attempts by Ertl County Militia terrorists.

POLITICS

Karval County forces are being pushed out of Ertl County in the wake of the Erszbat Council's call for a truce between the warring factions. Irregular and militia forces are breaking off attacks on both side, and Karval mercenaries are withdrawing armored support units, in full agreement with the Council. The Erszbat Council is attempting to (in this humble blogger's opinion) falsely prosecute Karval County officials for 'condoning and supporting war crimes committed in an effort to secure Karval County's leaders additional political clout and authority within the Erszbat Council.' What a joke! Here's hoping Karval County's leadership have some good lawyers! Rooting for you guys!

ELECTRONICS

Sadly, since my incarceration, I've been unable to keep up to date on electronics knowledge. So, I'm afraid I don't have much to talk about except the omnitools they've provided for us here to communicate with our families and friends. The KB-31 is actually a downsized version of an old Batarian Hegemony military OT design put out by Batarian State Arms, with anything potentially capable of being weaponized removed. It's intended to serve as a 'kid's first omnitool', and it works in that capacity fairly well. So, for a stripped-down OT with any programming capabilities removed, from the bottom of my crazy little blogger heart, I have to say 'thank the Karval Militia! This is actually pretty nice of you!'



That's all for Prophet! Thanks for reading, guys!

Hide the code better or the guards will find it.

A friendly reminder Mekan, you still have one.

I am not amused.

How long do they intend to have you interned?